Improvement in portable fences



w. G. POSTON, ,w. M. STEVENS & W. A. SIDBRS.

Portable-Pence.

No. 216,757. Patented June 24, 1879.

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WITNESSES Q -(LU\A. qi t ATTORNEYS.

( A 52! u m k N. PETERS. PHOTDJ-ITHOGMFNER, WASHINGTON, D O.

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIcE.

WILLIAM G. POSTON, WILLIAM M. STEVENS, AND WILLIAM A. SIDERS, OF-

LA FONTAINE, INDIANA.

IMPROVEMENT lN PORTABLE FENCES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 216,757, dated June 24, 1879; application filed May 12, 1879.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, WILLIAM G. PosToN, WILLIAM M. STEVENS, and WILLIAM A. SIDERs, of La Fontaine, in the county of Wabash and State of Indiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Portable Fences; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact descrip tion of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings, and to letters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

Our invention relates to portable fences, and is designed to provide certain improvements therein, whereby the connecting-panels may be drawn together in a close and strong engagement with each other.

Heretofore wire braces have been used which passed through registering-openings made in the contiguous pairs of battens, and loops have been formed on their free extremities, through which wedge shaped pins have been driven. The objection to this construction consists in the fact that the wedges are driven directly between the battens and the endportions of the respective wire loops, thereby producing a strain upon the latter which is out of proportion to the bracing strength imparted to the connectingpanels; also, the wire tends to cut into the wood of the wedge, and as the latter is driven against the wire there is always more or less liability to produce a ragged surface upon the wedge, which unfits it for use.

A further disadvantage is, that the wire loop does not constitute a rigid bearing-surface for the wedge to have direct lateral contact with.

Our improvement is intended to obviate the above objections; and consists in securing a horizontal pin within a loop formed in the free end of a wire brace, and driving a bifurcated Wedge vertically in between said pin and its contiguous batten, said wedge fitting also over the opposite wire brace, whose free end is securedin like manner to the other side of the fence.

In the drawings, Figure l is a view, in perspective, of a portion of a fence representing our invention. Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view of the same.

The panels A are supported upon transverse bases B, to which the wire braces (J are secured. The free end of each of these braces passes through registering openings made in the contiguous pair of battens as the latter unite to form a compound post, D.

Within a loop, a, formed on said free end ofthe brace is secured a horizontal pin, 1), and between this pin and the post is driven the vertical wedge E, so as to have lateral contact with both the same, but to have no wedgebearing against the wire. This wedge is bifurcated, and fits over the wire of the brace, whose free end it secures, as the same extends horizontally out from the fence. It also fits over the opposite wire brace, whose free end is secured in the same way to the other side of the fence, as said wire extends diagonally upward from its attachment to the base. In this mannera very firm and close engagement of the connecting-panels can be secured; and it is found that the construction is admirably adapted to accomplish the purpose of our invention, as previously stated.

Having fully described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

In a portable fence, the combination, with the wire brace whose free end has a horizontal pin secured thereto, of the bifurcated wedge driven vertically between said pin and the post, said wedge fitting also over the opposite wire brace, whose free end is secured in like manner to the other side of the fence, substantially as set forth In testimony that we claim the foregoing we have hereunto set our hands this 29th day of April, 1879.

WILLIAM G. POSTON. WILLIAM M. STEVENS. WILLIAM A. SIDERS. Witnesses:

JOHN J. SAILOR, JACOB BITLER. 

